Hands on: Audiomate wireless audio streamer

Audiomate lets you cut the cable and stream audio from practically any device.

The concept of the Audiomate is very simple -- it's basically a 2.4GHz audio transmitter and receiver for sending audio around your home. These kinds of gadgets have been around for years, but the $59.95 Audiomate's flexibility and attractive price tag make it worth a look.

The Audiomate comes in two models -- the AM8212 which is a two-way transmitter (pictured on the left) and the AM8112 which is a one-way transmitter (right). The one-way model is the most flexible, as it features a 3.5mm audio jack as well as a mini-USB socket. You can charge the internal Li-on battery via USB, but you can also connect the transmitter up to a computer via USB and treat it as USB speakers. It's an intriguing option, as it offers the possibility of only transmitting audio from some applications rather than all-or-nothing sound from the headphones jack.

On the other end of the one-way model you've got a thumb-sized receiver with a 3.5mm headphone jack and micro-USB for charging the internal battery. It's got power and volume controls on the front, plus a sturdy clip on the back for attaching to your shirt, sleeve or belt.

The two-way model uses exactly the same thumb-sized receiver, except it features extra buttons for jumping between audio tracks. Its transmitter is actually a tiny USB stick and it's designed to work with software such as Skype (you can use the receiver's power button to answer and end calls). You can't use it with a smartphone, in such circumstances you'd be better off with a Bluetooth headset. The loss of the 3.5mm audio jack means you can't use the two-way model to send audio from AV gear such as your television.

That's it in a nutshell really. The Audiomate transmitter and receiver come pre-paired out of the box which means you plug them in and they just work, which is a nice change from a lot of gear I test. The sound quality is also very impressive -- using my iPhone's earbuds and my good Sennheiser headphones I couldn't hear a drop in the sound quality compared to plugging them straight into the audio source.

Advertisement

The range is also pretty good. The packaging claims 20 metres on the one-way adaptor and 30 metres on the two-way adaptor, which they manage to achieve in perfect conditions. But objects in the way can cause problems once you get past around 10 metres, particularly if your body is directly between the transmitter and receiver. Even within these limitations the one-way receiver performed admirably when the transmitter was downstairs and a few rooms across. I should add that my house is a rather noisy radio environment so you might manage to do a little better.

My main concern with the Audiomate is that it runs on the 2.4 GHz band just like 802.11g Wi-Fi networks. I already have a lot of trouble with 2.4 GHz interference in my house, which is why I run my streaming audio on 5 GHz when possible. My fears were confirmed when I turned on the Audiomate alongside a notebook which relies on a tiny 802.11g USB dongle (it has a broken internal Wi-Fi card). The interference from the Audiomate crippled that notebook's network access, yet another nearby 802.11g notebook using its built-in Wi-Fi card remained unaffected.

To be fair that USB Wi-Fi dongle has been giving me some trouble, especially since I forced my Fritz!Box 7390 to start using 40 MHz channels on 2.4 GHz in an effort to boost network speeds. After I dipped into the Fritz!Box settings and disabled "Use radio channels optimised for 300 Mbit/s", it dropped back to using 20 MHz channels and the interference problems improved. Yet I still noticed that the Audiomate seemed to upset smartphones and tablets relying on 2.4 GHz to stream audio from services like Rdio. If you run into these problems and don't have the option of switching to 5 GHz, consider using a 3.5mm extension cable to get the Audiomate transmitter a bit further away from your gadget. Obviously your mileage may vary on this issue but it's not so bad that I'd call it a deal-breaker.

The Audiomate seems to keep its promises but the big question is; what exactly would you do with it? It's the classic solution looking for a problem, but there's more than one way to solve any problem which the Audiomate might address.

The most obvious use for the Audiomate is listening to audio around the house or maybe in the backyard, but this would seem redundant if you've got a smartphone in your pocket. If you don't own a smartphone then the Audiomate could be the perfect solution, although the lack of an AC power option for the one-way transmitter is frustrating. The two-way Audiomate might be useful for walking around the office while staying connected to your PC, but once again a smartphone could be a more practical solution.

Watching television is another obvious use for the one-way Audiomate, with the freedom to use your own headphones rather than buy expensive wireless headphones. It's possible to pair more than one receiver to the transmitter, but they need to be the same model. The two-way receiver won't pair with the one-way transmitter. Once again it would be handy to have an AC power option for the transmitter.

Finally you might consider the Audiomate while travelling, to stream audio from gadgets in your bag, but cordless Bluetooth headphones would probably be more practical in such circumstances. Alternatively you might use the Audiomate to connect to a car stereo, but you should weigh it up against Bluetooth and FM alternatives.

If you've got a tricky problem to which the Audiomate offers the most elegant solution then it could be just the little gadget you've been looking for.